Legal Paternity Test

Men who want to know for sure if they are (or are not) the father of a child, and women who want to know which man is the true father of their child, need a legal paternity test if the results of the paternity test may be needed for a legal purpose. Also, children born to unmarried parents may need this test to change their birth certificate or to gain survivor benefits. This test is frequently ordered in child custody and divorce proceedings by attorneys, the mother, or the father.

A legal paternity test is administered by one of our professional technicians at one of our clinics, and processed by an AABB certified laboratory. The report is signed by our laboratory. The results of this DNA test are court admissible for any purpose, including:

• changing a birth certificate
• petitioning for child custody
• establishing paternity for child support purposes
• changing wills and estates
• proving right of inheritance
• Survivor’s SSI or Social Security benefits

An appointment is required, but scheduling is very flexible. Try to book as early as possible to get the appointment time you want. Schedule conveniently online by ordering a paternity test here and indicating your appointment time preferences, or call us to make payment over the phone. Tell us when and where you wish to test, and let us know if the parties will test together, at the same clinic and at the same time, or separately, at different clinics and/or at different times. We’ll send you an email with your appointment information. If the times or locations scheduled in your appointment letter don’t work for you, we’ll make changes, at no charge, of course!

You can test as many children as needed. You can go together or separately to your appointment(s), in the the same clinic or in different clinics across the country. Home and hospital visits are available in some locations for an extra fee – call for details.

Adults should bring photo ID. For kids, please have a birth certificate or social security card. For newborns, hospital discharge papers can serve as identification.

Generally, it takes about a week to obtain the results of a legal paternity test. The signed lab report is emailed to you, and an official hard copy is sent later via US mail, which takes an extra week or two to arrive.

After our lab extracts the DNA from your specimens (the cheek swabs), our geneticists study 21 genetic markers for each person. They perform a statistical analysis to determine the likelihood that the parties are related. For paternity testing, that likelihood will always be either zero or greater than 99.9%.

• Home paternity test ($299)
• Prenatal paternity test ($1999)

NY residents must provide doctor’s prescription for all DNA tests, and must pay $45/person lab fee directly to lab. Total fee is $390 for a 2 person test.